The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones and Recipe

The book, The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones: A Holistic Approach, is full of tasty tips and recipes for strong bones! The book contains 85 delicious, healthy recipes. Below I included one recipe that I'm using this Holiday Season so I've linked it in my Holiday Recipe Exchange. Do you have a healthy recipe for this holiday season? If so please link it  at the top of my Holiday Recipe exchange!

Coconut Cream p. 235

A healthier, bone optimal cream to try on hot cocoa!

1 (14.5 oz) can organic full-fat coconut milk (don't use low-fat milk if you do you won't get the right texture)

1 Tbsp agave nectar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) Place coconut milk in the freezer for 5-6 hours to allow the cream to rise to the top.  Gently, without shaking the can, remove it from the freezer and carefully open it.  Scoop the thicker coconut milk off th etop and place it in a glass or stainless steel bowl.  Scoop carefully; the thick part should go down about 2/3s of the way to the bottom of the can.  Reserve the leftover coconut water for another use (use it in a soup or stew)

2) Whip the coconut milk with a whisk or a hand mixer until thick, then stir in the agave nectar and vanilla.  Stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, it will keep well for several days!  

Makes about 1 cup.

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Everyone wants to know how you can maintain strong bones.  We keep hearing that an active lifestyle and calcium supplements are two key ingredients.  The author, Annemarie Colbin, PH.D., has put together a program to help you create stronger bones.  Just when you learned that there are foods to strengthen and build bone mass you also find out there are foods that will weaken them, too!  The book is divided into three parts:


Part 1

Understanding Your Bones
The book takes on a well thought out Holistic Approach, whole body healing.  The author clearly list her experience in the area of bone health.  She also suffered with a broken wrist and sprained hand joints.  She clearly has  first "hand" experience on this topic.  She was able to change her behavior and eating habits to help her heal.


Part 2 
Caring for Your Bones
She covers whole foods, a diet to promote healthy bones, exercise and movement, strength from within and how to regain lost bone.


Part 3
Recipes for Healthy Bones! Yummy! Click to read article listing best foods and a recipe!

My Take on the book: This book is great for anyone wanting to know more about osteoporosis or fractures. There is a great deal of information here on causes and risk.  She made a great point that are bones are made to last.  According to science data and under certain conditions some bones have lasted tens of thousands of years.  They have been used to make tools.  They were made to not fall apart while the body is living. 

This is such a healthy book!  After reading it I really felt like I have some control on my bone health.  It isn't as easy as constantly popping Calcium chewable, it  is better! Do you need a medical degree to understand this book? No,  I found that she wrote this book for the every day person! She explained and went into details just enough to get you to understand how food, exercise, nutrients, etc all  work together to get you to have optimal healthy bones!

Here are just a few things that I learned from this book:

1) In adults, about 5 to 10 percent of bone is replaced yearly and most of our entire skeleton is replaced about every ten years. (pg 27)



2) The major sources of calcium are found in the foods we eat.  These plants offer twice as much calcium as an ounce of milk does: cauliflower, watercress, parsley, brussels sprouts, rutabaga, kale, mustard greens, bok choy, brocolli and turnip greens.  Other great sources are almonds, sesame seeds, pinto beans, sweet potatoes and seaweeds (often eaten in sushi rolls and miso soup), mineral water, oysters, soft-shell crabs, sardines, anchovies and mineral-rich stock made from bones. (pg 31)


3) A really great point was made that if your meal consists of many sources of calcium, then you will get enough calcium.


4) You need to do more than ingest  a high amount of calcium  for bone health and fracture prevention. (pg.31)


5) Aside from calcium, our body needs other nutrients and activities.  The author goes into great detail of these other nutrients and activities. 


6) Vitamin D is fat soluble so it needs fat  to be stored in the body.  This is a great example on how low-fat diets are not healthy for the body.  It does not help support healthy bones. (pg. 33)  This entire section on Vitamin D was an eye-opener for me.  Including the use of sun screen and how it interferes with the production of Vitamin D. 


7) Best fats to cook with are olive oil, unrefined sesame and sunflower oils, cold-pressed flaxseed oil, unrefined coconut and palm oils and butter or cream. (pg. 44)


8) Are you confused on HDL & LDL? She really explains the difference and that they shouldn't be called good or bad cholesterol.  (pg. 44)


9) Water is very important for optimal bone health? (pg 50)



10) This is where I could list at least 100 more things!  You'll have to read it!

Part 3 gives you some really great recipes!  What surprised me the most was the Dessert section!  She really did a wonderful job putting together recipes that where for optimal health for someone with a sweet tooth!




Author Bio
Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D., author of The Whole-Food Guide to Strong Bones: A Holistic Approach, is a health educator and award-winning writer, consultant, and lecturer. She is the founder and CEO of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City. She is author of several books including Food and Healing and writes a column, "Food and Your Health," for New York Spirit magazine.
For more information please visit www.FoodAndHealing.com.
Thanks to Julie at FSB Associates for this book to review.

12 Facts for This Holiday Season GIVEAWAY

For the next 12 days I will be listing Fact that you use to know!  After you read it you will probably catch yourself saying "I Use to Know That"  Thanks to the Author, Caroline Taggart for supplying the article through FSB Associates! Thanks to Caitlin at FSB Assoicates I will have one of these books to offer to a reader as a Giveaway!

GIVEAWAY

To enter: Come read each day for an entry!  So you can earn up to 12 entries! Leave a comment each day you stopped in to read! Did you miss a day? Make sure you read the day you missed and leave a comment!! It's that easy!

By Caroline Taggart,

Author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Click to read a review on the book

Ever catch yourself saying I Used to Know That?

Each holiday season brings another round of cocktail parties, family get-togethers, and corporate gatherings -- and invariably, lots of small talk. It's easy to feel overwhelmed when discussing politics, literature, and other intellectual "stuff," especially when what is thought to be general knowledge is often long-forgotten. Enter I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School. From English and Literature to Math and Science, from History and Geography to Religion and Other-Worldly Topics, this book leaves you equipped to handle any topic of conversation.

Here we've cherry-picked twelve fun facts for the holiday season -- one for every day of Christmas (or whatever holiday you prefer!) Quiz yourself to see how much "stuff" you need to brush up on before hobnobbing with the boss or office crush. Check back daily for the next one!!!

DAY ONE

1) On building sentences: Just what is a "clause"? (Not to be confused with Santa Claus.)

Answer: A clause contains a subject and a verb and may stand alone as a sentence or as part of a sentence (when it is often called a subordinate clause): Santa Claus loves cookies but can't eat them without milk.

 DAY TWO

2)  How many bones is the spine made up of?

Answer: 26 small bones called vertebrae (Be careful lifting all those heavy holiday boxes.)

DAY THREE 

 

3. Acclaimed author Charles Dickens (1812-70) wrote which Christmas classic?

Answer: A Christmas Carol. The miserly Ebenezer Scrooge tries to ignore Christmas and is haunted by the ghost of his former partner, Marley, and by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, who show him the error of his ways.

DAY FOUR

4. The fist chapter of this famous book opens with "Call me Ishmael." Name the book and author. (Hint: it makes a whale of a gift!)

Answer: Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Melville is also the author of Pierre and the unfinished Billy Budd.

DAY FIVE

5. There's a name for the process of watering your Christmas tree? Who knew?

Answer: Grab the kids and give them this science factoid as they nurture the family tree: Osmosis is a form of diffusion that is specific to the movement of water. Water moves through a selectively permeable membrane (that is, one that lets some types of molecules through but not others) from a place where there is a higher concentration of water to one where it is lower.

Day Six

6. Can you name all 6 wives of Henry VIII, father of the Church of England?

Answer: (Listed in order) Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine, Catherine. They are often remembered as divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. Sure makes you think twice when complaining about bad relatives.

Happy Holidays to all!

©2009 Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School

Author Bio
Caroline Taggart, author of I Used to Know That: Stuff You Forgot From School, has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years and has covered nearly every subject from natural history and business to gardening and astronomy. She has written several books and was the editor of Writer's Market UK 2009.
For more information please visit www.amazon.com.

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GIVEAWAY

To enter: Come read each day and leave a comment for an entry!  So you can earn up to 12 entries! If you missed a day go to the one you missed and read and leave comment! It's that easy!

Win a Kindle!

I just entered a contest to win a free Kindle from Noobie (worth $259!) and I wanted you to have a chance to win one too!

All you need to do to enter is to click the link below or copy and paste it into your favorite Internet browser:
http://www.noobie.com/kindle-giveaway?ref=2019589866
 
Be sure to read the email you get from Noobie after you register. You'll get your own unique link that you can use to earn even more entries in the drawing!

Goodluck!

Seven Ways to Manage Your Diabetic Waistline During the Holidays

Thanks to Anna at FSB Associates for the article! Stay tuned for a book review in a few weeks!

Seven Ways To Manage Your Diabetic Waistline During the Holidays
By Frederic J. Vagnini, M.D., FACS, and Lawrence D. Chilnick,

Authors of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes

During the holiday season many dedicated dieters or those who follow special diets for diabetes, heart disease or other conditions not only "fall off the wagon" but also leap into the deep end of the pool. Don't feel guilty. This is a normal reaction to attending large family dinners where everyone makes food loaded with seductive carbohydrates. We also go to multiple parties -- sometimes on the same day -- where the hosts have hired caterers who specialize in delicious appetizers and desserts that are so good you just stand at the buffet and eat more and more.

Worse, in some cases you are at the home of a sensitive relative who has taken gourmet cooking courses and will be insulted if you don't have at least seconds of every dish. Your diabetes is not an excuse where they are concerned.

Can you have "your cake and eat it" during this holiday season that now seems to stretch from before Thanksgiving well into the coming year? If you adopt a simple strategy, you can survive the holidays without too much damage.

The first thing you have to admit is that you are not powerless over the mounds of mashed potatoes, hams, turkeys, stuffing, butter coated green beans and apple and pumpkin pies. Next, adopt these few logical steps below and with any luck and preparation you will come out of the holidays as healthy as you went into them -- your blood sugars and weight at the same levels three months before.

One: Put Yourself Into Pre-Holiday Training: Think of the holidays as sort of an Olympics (for Eating). The first thing any athlete does is begin training. As a diabetic you are already exercising, eating properly and taking medication and supplements. Adopt a strategy that helps you increase your exercise and lowers your blood sugars even more. Begin this a month ahead of Thanksgiving. When you are shopping park farther away and walk everywhere you can. The more "workouts" you get with proper food and exercise the better shape you will be in. 

Two: Holidays are not a license to eat. We all tend to have "slips" when following a weight loss plan -- especially as a diabetic whose health depends on keeping nutrition balanced. Do not rationalize as you line up to shovel food on your plate that this is only "for today". It won't turn out that way. There will be more parties and unless you adopt the attitude that "today is just like any other day" you will be on the downhill slide.

Three: Use Visualization. Think of how you felt in the past when you did overeat. Remember over eating and the bloated, nauseous feeling that may have led to you getting sick and ending up vomiting and passed out on the couch. Just bring that sensation back and you will already start backing away from the table.

Four: Think Of The Damages: Keep in mind that over eating during the holidays can destroy an entire year of work and you end up possibly gaining 10-15 pound in a few weeks. It is OK to go off your diet a bit but keep the consequences in focus. 

Five: Stay Home When You Can: This one is tough but if you can keep the "exposure" down your odds of staying on track increase.

Six: Don't Go To Parties Hungry: In effect pre-medicate. Have a small salad or something healthy when you go to a party or dinner so you will not be as tempted.

Seven: Avoid the "liquids". Parties seem to attract bottles of beer and glasses of wine. Remember how many calories these contain and stick to water if you can.

The holiday season is about seeing old friends, family and having a good time. While all the food and entertaining is hard to avoid, if you keep these ideas in mind you can still enjoy yourself and not suffer from it. The most important lesson is that if you keep exercising -- staying in training -- you will have a much easier time continuing your weight loss program after the holidays are passed..

©2009 Frederic Vagnini, M.D., FACS, and Lawrence D. Chilnick, authors of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes

Author Bios

Frederic J. Vagnini, M.D., FACS, coauthor of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes, is a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon whose understanding of the ravages of cardiovascular diseases is grounded in twenty years as a cardiac surgeon. He hosts a popular call-in radio show and has published several books, including The Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program, a New York Times bestseller.

Lawrence D. Chilnick, coauthor of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes, is the authors and creator of the New York Times bestseller The Pill Book, which has sold 17 million copies and is still in print after more than two decades. He is a publishing executive, editor, teacher, journalist, broadcaster, and author of several popular health reference books, electronic products, audiotapes, and videos.

For more information please visit http://vagnini.com 

and http://www.fairwindspress.com/description.asp?isbn=9781592333844 

Giving back at the Holidays!

I just found out that Twittermoms and Robeez is involved in a blog event to give back for the holidays!   Guess what Robeez   is up to?  For every pair of Robeez Soft Sole purchases, stride rite will donate that pair to K.I.D.S (Kids In Distressed Situations), through December 23rd.  I would love to get a pair of these shoes for Lucy.  She is the cutest baby and will need these shoes before you know it!

I love these Robeez soft sole Paisley T-straps in fuchia!  They will add a little prep to her step. Lucy can study her ABC's and 123's at the playground or the park in this easy-on, stay-on paisley t-strap.

As for my family we give back to our Church Family by hosting a huge Open House!  My husband is the Pastor and this is our 4th Christmas here and our 3rd year.  We moved here right before Christmas.  We had closed on our home so we got to sleep there with air beds! It was a lot of fun!  Members of our Church brought over food, frying pan and utensils, salt & pepper,etc whatever they thought that we could use for a few days until we moved in all our belongings.  Their love and generosity has continued year after year.  So our Open House is a way that we can give back to them and say THANKS for all that you do!

As part of the Open House we are also going Christmas Caroling to the local nursing homes and stopping at homes of people from our church who can't get out and join us.

As a family and as a church family we are involved in Project Weekend Warrior.  Each week we bag up food for needy school children to take home to eat over the weekend.   During their Christmas break we will be sending home $20 McDonald gift cards and extra food and water to help them get through their break.  It is so sad to think that there are kids that don't get much food on the weekends or during the Holidays.  We try and help.

Our family and church family also volunteer and donate food to the local Food Pantry.  We were able to give them money to help purchase chickens for the holidays.  A fun treat we are doing is putting together personal care items for those who visit the pantry.  They will be little holiday bags of shampoo, soap, shavers, denture cleaner, feminine hygiene products, etc.  These are items that are not available for them at the Pantry. If I happen to win the grand prize I will be donating the shoes to the Food Pantry for those with little ones.  They will be overwhelmed to receive such a high quality and very warm product for their little ones this winter.

Thanks to all who go the extra mile and do something special during this time of the year.  What do you do for the Holidays to help others?

Take a few minutes and visit Twittermoms to enter in this blogging contest! K.I.D.S brings hope and self-esteem to children in need and their families by providing new clothes, shoes, toys, furniture, books and juvenile products donated by leading manufacturers and retailers. The donations move through their network of community social service agencies in the U.S. and abroad to reach children who are ill, living in poverty, or are the victims of natural disasters.

About The Stride Rite Children’s Group, LLC. and Collective Brands, Inc.

Stride Rite Children's Group, part of the Stride Rite unit of Collective Brands, Inc., markets the leading brand of premium children's footwear in the United States under such brands as Stride Rite®, Saucony® Kids, Sperry Top-Sider® Kids, Keds® Kids, Robeez® and among others. For 90 years, the company’s passion for excellence in design has been focused on ensuring the proper development of children’s feet with a commitment to innovation, research and technology.

Overcome Supermarket Roadblocks for Healthly Weight Loss

Thanks to Anna at FSB Associates for the review article.

Overcome Supermarket Roadblocks
by Frederic Vagnini, M.D., FACS, and Lawrence D. Chilnick,
Authors of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes

Shopping Defensively

Here are some specific hints for defensive shopping:

• Prepare ahead. If there's one rule to follow, this is it: Don't to go to the supermarket "on the fly." We've all run out for a few things and ended up buying twice as much as we needed. Often, something in the store tempts us to do just that. For example, how many supermarkets position the bakery right where you walk in, with the wonderful smell of newly baked bread or cakes perfuming the air? It's not an accident.
• Consult your cookbooks and create a weekly menu. Write down all of the ingredients you need for it.
• Know what you are going to make, and make sure that most of what you buy fits into your overall meal plan.
• Check the fridge and pantry so you know what you don't  need to buy.
• Shop weekly. Shopping too often or stretching your shopping trips to every two weeks will make sticking to your meal plan more difficult.
• Learn the store layout. The fewer tempting products you see and the less time you spend browsing, the easier it will be to avoid buying the wrong foods. The healthiest fresh foods are in areas against the store walls. Don't spend time in the central aisles with things you don't need.
• Look up and down. The most attractively packaged food is on shelves at eye level.
• Stay away from the areas where store employees are offering free samples of high-carb and fatty foods.
• Eat before you shop. A hungry shopper buys more food and makes worse food choices, plus with diabetes, you need to eat at specific times and in amounts that ensure stable blood sugar.
• Shop alone and without the kids. Although research claims that men are more likely to stick to their list only, the levels of obesity in both genders suggests otherwise. Going to the supermarket should be a directed, time-limited event. You are there to buy certain things you need; you don't have to review every single one of the store's offerings. If possible, shop for food when the kids are in school because they are special targets for marketers.
• Make healthy choices. This doesn't only mean buying fresh vegetables from local farms or good produce in the supermarket. A healthy choice is a meal you make at home -- not take-out or prepared foods. Over the past decade, sales of prepared foods at the deli counters and throughout the store have risen steadily. Americans now spend over $15 billion per year on prepared foods in supermarkets and in shopping mall food courts.

While sales of starchy, fat-dripping fast foods are dropping, prepared take-out foods aren't much better. The choices are often "family friendly": fried chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken wings, baked potatoes, egg rolls, tacos, and creamy "comfort food" soups. Did you know that much of the prepared supermarket food is made by the same giant food companies that make the fast foods? If you buy prepared foods, avoid those with heavy mayonnaise or breading and high calories. Dodge items featuring rice or mashed potatoes, too.

Some experts suggest you take a close look at how much of your diet comes from the prepared choices. If prepared food makes up more than half of your diet, you have a problem. While one solution would be to learn to cook more or better, some people simply don't like to cook or have too little time to make meals at home. But this isn't an insurmountable problem.

Making the Supermarket Your Support System

Doing your own cooking will help you control what you eat, control your glucose, and lose weight. You will still go to the supermarket, but buying fresh vegetables in season, certain fruits, and good protein sources such as fish, chicken, turkey, and other lean meats will make your diet more interesting and flavorful. You might even discover that cooking can be fun, and you can make it a group activity. As you lose weight, you will feel better physically and mentally because the food you eat will be better for you. Your body will thank you.

Another good tip is to ask questions at the market. You'd be surprised how much help the people behind the counters can be, and not only at high-end supermarkets.

The desire for certain foods has been studied and reported on over the years. It's often been noted that people fantasize more about food than any other pleasure, including sex. After all, food gave us our first pleasure as children, and eating habits last a lifetime. Given the level of obesity in the country, is it any surprise that many adolescents who do their "hunting" in front of the computer or video game are following in their parents' footsteps?

The above is an excerpt from the book The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes by Frederic Vagnini, M.D., FACS, and Lawrence D. Chilnick. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2009 Frederic Vagnini, M.D., FACS, and Lawrence D. Chilnick, authors of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes

Author Bios

Frederic J. Vagnini, M.D., FACS, coauthor of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes, is a board-certified cardiovascular surgeon whose understanding of the ravages of cardiovascular diseases is grounded in twenty years as a cardiac surgeon. He hosts a popular call-in radio show and has published several books, including The Carbohydrate Addict's Healthy Heart Program, a New York Times bestseller.

Lawrence D. Chilnick, coauthor of The Weight Loss Plan for Beating Diabetes: The 5-Step Program That Removes Metabolic Roadblocks, Sheds Pounds Safely, and Reverses Prediabetes and Diabetes, is the authors and creator of the New York Times bestseller The Pill Book, which has sold 17 million copies and is still in print after more than two decades. He is a publishing executive, editor, teacher, journalist, broadcaster, and author of several popular health reference books, electronic products, audiotapes, and videos.

For more information please visit www.amazon.com.